


is it hot in here or is it just me

by kangchanhee



Category: SF9 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Denial, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 05:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20222788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangchanhee/pseuds/kangchanhee
Summary: finding your soulmate is like a game of ‘hot and cold’. the closer you are to your soulmate, the hotter it gets. when you finally touch, the temperature goes back to normal.





	is it hot in here or is it just me

“man, i know it’s summer but i really didn’t expect it to be _so fucking hot_,” chanhee complained. he took a pamphlet used for advertising some kind of a hair gel or something and waved it in front of his face, hoping that’d help him cool down at least a little.

“dude, we’re in a grocery store. they have ac on, it’s far from hot. i’m getting kinda cold, to be honest,” youngkyun shot a confused look at his friend and took a packet of chips. “wait,” he stopped dead in his tracks. “do you think…”

“no, don’t be stupid,” chanhee interrupted. “i’m not gonna meet my _soulmate_ in a fucking grocery store, kyun. i just haven’t cooled down yet from when we were just outside,” the boy rolled his eyes but he felt his stomach turn at the thought. it was plausible - youngkyun had met taeyang while taking out the trash, the meetings weren’t always all beautiful and poetic. quite often they ended up being embarrassing or funny or both.

“okay, i’m just saying that, y’know, it’s a possibility. don’t rule it out,” youngkyun shrugged and went on. they had planned to have a movie night, so they needed to shop for some snacks and taeyang had promised to make dinner if they bought the ingredients, so the boys were bound to spend quite a while roaming around.

“it has officially been ruled out,” chanhee crossed his arms on his chest and followed youngkyun deeper into the grocery store. it became a bit colder as they went on. “see, it’s all good, it’s not as hot anymore,” chanhee said, victoriously. as if not meeting his soulmate was a good thing.

the younger, to be fair, didn’t know if he wanted to meet his soulmate yet. sure, it would be nice. all his friends had already found theirs early on and chanhee was now the only one without his soulmate but at the same time he enjoyed the freedom and independence. he _knew_ that youngkyun’s freedom or independence were in no way limited because of taeyang, his soulmate, but it still made him kind of anxious.

“if you say so,” youngkyun hummed and chuckled to himself. “okay, we got the cheese, now to get some chicken,” he looked at the grocery list that taeyang had given the boys.

it was just fine at first. but as they closed in on the meat aisle, chanhee could feel himself starting to sweat again, getting hotter by the second. the boy tried to calm himself down. surely - he was just imagining things, right? there was no way he’d meet his soulmate in a grocery store. it was too early for him, anyway. he wasn’t even twenty years old yet, he was still very much baby.

but the self-persuasion thing didn’t really work on him. he didn’t yet understand if it was unfortunate or… fortunate.

“i’m gonna go grab some soda,” and with that chanhee fucked off to the other side of the store. the boy stood there, in the soda aisle, checking out all the sodas as if his life depended on it. for any passerby it must’ve looked like the boy was either meditating or praying to the gods to make them help him choose the correct soda.

partly, it was true. chanhee was in a state between meditating and praying to all the deities he didn’t believe in for an answer of what to do. the boy was torn in between searching out for his soulmate - they might not meet for ages again, or to let is slide and run away as fast as possible. he might regret not meeting them sooner. but the opposite could be true as well. chanhee had no idea what to do.

and when chanhee had no idea what to do, he let himself trust blind luck. if there was to be an even number of different sodas on the shelves, he’d look for his soulmate. if there was an odd number of them, however, he’d just leave.

chanhee exhaled loudly and started counting.

sprite, coca-cola, coca-cola zero, coca-cola light, fanta, 7-up, rose lemonade, off-brand knockoff of sprite, off-brand knockoff of coca-cola, off-brand knockoff of fanta.

ten.

chanhee was incredibly stupid but he was sure that ten was an even number. the boy looked around in hopes for another soda but there were none. it was just water or alcohol. the boy sighed; chanhee got himself into this, there was no one else to blame except himself.

chanhee wasn’t sure of how to go about it, though. he knew the general direction his soulmate was in but the grocery store was full of people, more so than usual, because it was the end of the workday, everyone was going home from their jobs and stopping to get something for dinner.

lucky for chanhee, the boy had long lost his dignity and had no shame what-so-ever.

chanhee headed in the general direction of where his soulmate was, he felt himself growing hotter again. the vegetable and fruit aisle was close enough. the boy climbed the small three-step ladder in the middle of it and cleared his throat loudly, attracting the attention of some shoppers.

“one of y’all here is my soulmate and i’d really appreciate meeting the reason why i have to experience scorching heat in a grocery store with an ac i the middle of the summer,” he half-said, half-yelled. the grocery store wasn’t too loud or big, so for sure everyone had heard what the boy had announced out of nowhere.

for a few seconds nothing happened - except for youngkyun arriving, looking as horrified as ever at what chanhee was doing, and him starting to apologise in chanhee’s place. and then the place got hotter. and hotter. and after a shy tap on the boy’s shoulder the temperature lowered back to normal.

“i need to mentally prepare myself, i’ll turn around in a second,” chanhee murmured and climbed down the ladder, making a point of not looking back. he took a deep breath. and then another one. and then a few more, all while youngkyun was _glaring_ at chanhee for not talking with the person behind him sooner.

chanhee turned around to see a tall man, that was the first trait he noticed about him. chanhee didn’t even have to think to climb backwards on the ladder to try to match the man’s height. the second thing chanhee noticed was that the man was pretty. very, very pretty. he had a big smile on his face and in a way he resembled a puppy. if a puppy was six foot four.

so they stood there for a little while, just looking at each other. neither of them had had any idea of what or who to expect - they didn’t even know what gender the other would be, so all of this was new to both of them.

“i’m seokwoo,” the man finally said.

“i’m chanhee,” the boy introduced himself.

**Author's Note:**

> i missed rochan. i wrote this in like an hour or two, so there's no quality to it but i just love rochan ok  
u can find me on [ my twitter @witchhyuck](https://twitter.com/witchhyuck) and/or [curiouscat @markhyuckstea](https://curiouscat.me/markhyuckstea) uwu


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